We first met at the University of Cincinnati. Fate would have it that we both started attending Wesley House events, and somehow ended up in the same freshman seminar. Truthfully, neither of us remembers which one came first, but we like to claim we officially met at Wesley House. We became friends after taking that class together during our first semester of college. We'd discuss the topics of the day while walking with each other after class. Neither one of us wanted to part, but Brad had to get to his next class and I would get hangry if I didn't go to the dining hall after our class let out at 12:15 pm. It wasn't until next semester we would start to hang out outside of class.

The college dining hall. Filled with late night munchies, the same menus on repeat, and more food than you can handle. Most people would not consider a dining hall a proper place for romance, but for us it was great. One night, we decided to go get dinner together at the dining hall to finish the conversations we had the previous semester in class. It was such a great dinner that we stayed there for hours talking. For the next few weeks we would go to dinner at the dining hall every night. At that point, it was obvious we liked each other, so we decided to go on a proper date.

We officially started dating on January 30th, 2013. We went through all the milestones: meeting the family, celebrating holidays together, meeting each other's friends, and even going through hard times. During our four years of dating, Brad got a certificate of personal training, joined the National Guard, became a licensed EMT, and started working at Hoxworth Blood Center. Jackie went through a summer internship, started working for Cincinnati Parks, and graduated from UC with a BS in Environmental Studies. Through all our accomplishments, the most difficult period was when Brad went away for 8 months for his military training. This strengthened and tested our relationship more than anything else ever had before.

January rolled around, and we started thinking about what we wanted to do for our anniversary. One day Brad asked me what I wanted to do to celebrate. I hadn't really thought about it much. Brad asked a couple of times what I wanted to do, so we decide he would surprise me. All I knew was that we had plans for Friday, January 27, 2017, and it would involve food. I got home from work that day, and Brad told me to get ready as soon as possible. While he had planned to take me to the aquarium, I took too long to get ready, and we would not have had enough time before it closed. So instead, we got to Newport early before our dinner reservations. We went into Barnes and Nobles, and reminisced on all the childhood books we used to love, walked around the art gallery in Newport, KY, and spent some time looking at the darkening Cincinnati skyline. It was turning out to be a great anniversary, and we hadn't even gone to dinner yet. However, Brad kept walking us around outside, and it was really cold out! I didn't understand why we were admiring the skyline AGAIN, but I knew we had some time to kill. I suggested we see if we can get into the restaurant early, but Brad stopped me. He said, "yes, but I have something to ask you first." Turns out during all our walking around outside in the cold, he was waiting for the right moment to ask me to marry him. He wanted to find the right time when no one else was walking around. He got down on one knee, and asked me if I would marry him. I said, "yes, of course!" We then rushed inside, and were able to celebrate with a nearly empty restaurant, and a quiet dinner to ourselves. It was perfect, despite the cold weather.